Broken Reflection
by JarOfBittersweets
Summary: 'So...so...' His fingers retracted from the mirror. "Imperfect." He whispered as his fingers curled into a fist and with all his might, punched the mirror. Collab with ForTheGun.


Grell tenderly wiped his tears with a tissue in the dim lighting of candle light. He was sitting on the floor, staring into the full body mirror. It was another night of crying over his first love, William.

_'I'll never be pretty for Will. Look at me.'_ Grell thought as he tenderly stroked the mirror. _'I'm so ugly...'_ His fingers began push harder on the mirror, leaving fingerprints.

_'Disgusting...'_ His fingernails scratched the glass.

_'So...so...'_ His fingers retracted from the mirror.

"Imperfect." He whispered as his fingers curled into a fist and with all his might, punched the mirror.

Red dripped from his hand and dripped onto the shattered glass. He stared down at the glass, watching as clear mixed with red. He slowly opened his hand and looked at the damage.

He regretted his actions, but the deed was done. He cried into the bloody hand. Then there was a knock on the front door. Grell was surprised to hear it over his crying.

Grell thought to open it or not as the person knocked once more. And again. And again.

The red reaper stood up, shaking off the bits of shards. He monuvered his way to the door. Opening it slowly, he tried to hide his bloody hand behind the back of his red lingerie.

Grell's green, puffy eyes widened as cold eyes stared back.

Standing in Grell's doorway was William T. Spears. Under his arm was a folder so stuffed with paper, it looked like it could burst at any second. Grell said nothing, so William thought it necessary to make his presence known. He cleared his throat and said, "Good evening..." he gave Grell a once over, raising a well-groomed brow at the redhead's choice in sleepwear, "Mr. Sutcliff."

Grell couldn't say anything. His eyes glanced at the ground, noticing bits of scarlet dropping on the floor. Grell looked frantically at William, who only cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. As his green eyes looked down, Grell yelled out, "W-What are you doing here?"

William's eyebrows knitted together at the tone in Grell's voice. He brushed it off and replied. "Honestly..." he removed the folder from under his arm and held it up for Grell to see, "You left _this_ on your desk." he flipped the folder open to reveal a hefty load of unfinished paperwork.

Grell took his hand off the door knob and grabbed the paperwork, as if being controlled.

"T-Thank you! H-Have a good night!" He turned away, trying to hide his hand, and held his papers in both hands. But before he could close the door in William's face—despite being rude—his shoulder that connected to his wounded hand was grabbed.

William found Grell's behavior to be quite peculiar. _'What? Now he just takes paperwork with absolutely no complaints?'_ He thought. The tall man realized that Grell was about to close the door on him. Without a second thought, he grabbed Grell's shoulder, making the papers that were previously in the redhead's hands fall to the floor and scatter around the room.

He spared a glance to the folder that was now laying open on the floor. His eyes widened in surprise as he noticed a red handprint on the front of the cheap yellow folder. _'Now _that_ was most certainly not there before!'_ He panicked.

Suddenly, he jerked Grell around to face him. He looked down to the surprised shinigami's hand. Blood. "Sutcliff, why are you bleeding?"

Grell looked down at the bloody hand. He couldn't process what had just happened, all he knew was that he was on the floor, crying.

"I...g-glass and...blood...and...and...you..." Grell stumbled over his words as tears flowed down his face. "A-And...I-I'm u...ugly...d-disgusting...and..."

William's face turned red in anger. How could somebody talk about themself like that? Especially somebody as—dare he say it—pretty as Grell? He couldn't listen to this for another second. "Shut up, Sutcliff!" he snapped. Grell looked up at him with wide eyes, tears flowing freely down his flushed cheeks. The taller man's gaze softened.

William slowly kneeled down beside Grell, taking his smaller, wounded hand in his own. He rubbed his thumb in soothing circles over the injured flesh. "Now, why don't you just calm down, and tell me what happened?"

Grell hiccuped and laid his head on William's shoulder, crying onto the black fabric. Grell felt William wrap an arm around his shivering body, the other cradling his wounded hand.

They stayed like that for minutes before Grell finally calmed down. "S-Sorry Will. I-I was crying and I was looking at my reflection. So I broke the mirror with my hand because I was sick..." The redhead gritted his teeth. "I was so sick of looking at how ugly I am."

At those words, William grit his teeth together. "Don't say that. _Never_ say that. You are not ugly, Grell Sutcliff, and I will not put up with you harming yourself because you think as such."

William subconciously tightened his grip on Grell's injured hand. He let go as he heard the redhead whimper in pain. "My apologies." he muttered stiffly. "Perhaps we should go tend to your hand. I assume you own a first-aid kit?"

Grell nodded softly. "Just go into the bedroom and into the bathroom. But be careful of the shards."

William stood and made his way to his subordinate's bedroom. He noticed tiny pools of red leading a trail through the hallway and into Grell's room. He cringed as he realized just how much blood Grell had already lost.

As William left, Grell cringed at the stinging pain. The redhead tenderly used some of his blood to write 'Will' on his injured hand. Doing anything that involved William's name seemed to calm him down.

He arrived at his destination with a quickness. Stepping inside the red room, he saw shards of broken glass littering the floor. He walked toward the bathroom, avoiding the jagged pieces of mirror, and then began to rummage the cabinets for Grell's first-aid kit.

Several minutes of frivolous searching and muttered swear words later, William finally found the small red box. He stood up and walked back into the bedroom and down the hall.

He approached the area where he had left the bleeding redhead. "Alright, Sutcliff, give me your hand."

As William walked in, he tried to smudge it. But it was too late as William got down on his knees and tenderly took his hand.

William was about to grab some gauze when Grell saw his eyes flicker to the writing.

William raised an eyebrow as he glanced down at the partially smudged writing on Grell's hand. He gently took the redhead's hand in his, and then held it up in front of Grell's face. "Sutcliff... What is this?" his voice cracked a bit, but whether it was out of anger or concern remained unknown.

Grell blushed softly. "I-It says W-Will..."

"Yes," William started, "I can see that, but... Why?"

Grell looked deep into William's eyes before saying, "Because I am in love with you..."

William stared at the smaller man with a completely unreadable expression, a light shade of pink dusting his normally ghostly pale cheeks. "... I... You... Wh—" he wanted to say something—_anything_—but he was rendered speechless.

'He doesn't mean that...' William thought to himself, but one look into Grell's frighteningly serious gaze told him otherwise. "... You... Really mean that, don't you?"

Grell nodded softly. William did not respond, only gazing down to finish tending to his wounded hand. They were wrapped in silence as Grell's mind wander to what William would say. Then William spoke his name.

"...Sutcliff." William sensed that Grell had looked up at him and continued, "Why... After all these years, why are you still waiting for me?"

He wanted answers. All he ever did was push Grell around. What could possibly make the redhead love him so much? Surely he had men busting down his front door. Why wait for stiff, cold, cruel William?

Grell smiled softly. "I haven't the slightest idea what there is not to like about you." Grell stood up and held his uninjured out for William. William only dismissed it and stood on his own.

"Well, thank you." Grell said as he walked to his bedroom. "Have a—"

William noticed that Grell was about to disappear back into his bedroom, and became slightly anxious. He felt as if he had something to say, but he wasn't quite sure of what it was. Without much thought, he reached out and grabbed Grell's hand. "Wait!"

Grell turned around and was surprised when lips tenderly pressed against his. Grell didn't know what to think as William kissed him, holding him tightly against his body. The redhead was panting by the time William stopped kissing him.

William's loving gaze was making Grell heartbeat faster than possible. And his smile...

Grell laid his head against William's chest, the raven-haired man's heartbeat lulling him to sleep.

William noticed that the redhead was starting to fall asleep, so, he did the gentlemanly thing to do and carried Grell to his bed. After tucking the redhead in under the comforter, William made his way to the bedroom door, only to be stopped as a loud clap of thunder sounded throughout the younger reaper's living quarters.

"Damn..." William cursed under his breath. He couldn't go out in this weather. He spared a glance to the already sleeping redhead. After a moment of complete silence, he said, "Ah, what the hell." and kicked his shoes off. He removed his spectacles and crawled in bed with Grell, being careful not to wake him.

He placed a tender kiss to Grell's forehead. "Goodnight Grell..."

**FIN.**

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**ForTheGun: Yet another fun story written with the amazing JarOfBittersweets. She is really the only way I have been able to get up off of my lazy butt and write for fun recently XD She makes such a lovely Grell, don't you think? Anyway, fun story to write! Shalom.**

**JarOfBittersweets: This was a lot of fun, especially when doing it with ForTheGun. I think she's the best William ever~, right? Anyway, I hope you all like this story!**

**Disclaimer: ForTheGun and I do not own Kuroshitsuji or its characters!**


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